Because the writings of Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Petrarch have been available in multiple editions and languages, each situated in its own historical moment, determining which text to quote is already an interpretive decision.
For biblical passages, throughout this book I have settled on the imperfect solution of using the translations that best approximate the readers I discuss. For the first chapter, I chose the Douay-Rheims version (DRB), along with the Vulgate (V) on which it is based, on the premise that this approximates the Latin that Augustine (who was not a fluent reader of Greek) and Petrarch would have read and the Catholic tradition through which Petrarch would have understood Paul. In the following chapters, I use the 1576 Geneva translation (GB) because this would have been the English version available to and preferred by the English authors I consider, most of whom composed the poems I discuss before the King James translation (KJB) appeared in 1611. Throughout these chapters, I continue to cite the Vulgate, as well as the King James translation, when these versions differ significantly from the Geneva and provide additional information. When biblical passages appear within quotations from other sources, I leave them as they are translated in that source.
In my discussion of Petrarch, I have included all poems in both English and Italian. For Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Montaigne, Freud, and Lacan, I work primarily with the English translations; I include the original Latin, German, or French only when those languages’ differences or nuances inform my reading.